Encyclopedia Judaica:Aguilar De Campoo, Spain

AGUILAR DE CAMPÓO, fortress-town in Castile, district of Palencia, northern Spain. The earliest evidence of a Jewish settlement is furnished in the lease of a flour mill in 1187 witnessed by 17 Jews, including two blacksmiths. In the 13th century it was a medium-sized community, with 15 families or about 70 Jews. The farming and other revenues in the districts were in the hands of Don Çaq de la Maleha (
*Ibn Ẓadok
) and his associates. The taxes paid by the Jewish community in 1290 amounted to 10,718 maravedis. In 1311 the Infant Pedro confirmed the rights of the convent of Santa Maria to tithes and the dues of porteria paid by the Jews; these were reconfirmed in 1370, although the Jewish community had been
decimated by English soldiery during the civil war in 1367. The community in Aguilar apparently continued to exist until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Over one of the gates of the city, Puerta de Reinosa, there is a long inscription in Judeo-Castilian (i.e., Spanish in Hebrew characters, almost unique among the Spanish Jewish inscriptions) testifying that the tower was constructed by Don Çaq (Isaac) son of Solomon ibn Malak(e) and his wife Bellida in 1380. The inscription is unique from the historical and linguistic points of view. Fourteenth-century documents speak of the location of the Jewish quarter. It seems very likely that the juderia was in what is now known as Tobalina Street. A new Jewish quarter was established towards the end of the 15th century.